TRAI may float paper on net neutrality in August

Sources said that with the process on net neutrality now complete, the regulator is likely to float a full consultation paper on the subject next month.Anandita Singh Mankotia | ET Bureau | July 19, 2016, 08:22 IST

NEW DELHI: The telecom regulator may not make any specific recommendations after the completion of the consultation process on its paper on 'Free Data' and instead may directly make suggestions on the broader subject of net neutrality, thus agreeing with telcos that the two issues should be clubbed together and not seen in isolation.

"The authority simply wanted to devise a standardised way in which telecom operators could go ahead and offer some sort of free data to customers to encourage the use of mobile broadband after the authority banned discriminatory pricing of data services," a person familiar with the matter said, explaining the rationale behind the consultation paper on free data.

Sources said that with the preconsultation process on net neutrality now complete, the regulator is likely to float a full consultation paper on the highly controversial and debated subject next month.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had issued the consultation paper on May 19, to explore how mobile internet access could be provided to consumers for free, without violating a ban on discriminatory pricing of data services. The last date for submitting counter-comments was July 14.

It previously came out with separate consultations on regulating over-the-top applications that provide communication services and on discriminatory pricing of data services, apart from a pre-consultation paper on net neutrality.

Telecom operators had been unhappy with what they called the regulator's piecemeal attempt at addressing net neutrality, which guarantees free and unbiased access to the internet, and urged Trai to tackle the subject holistically.

"Making a holistic decision on all aspects of internet access and content is the ideal way forward. So, clubbing the decision on free data with the decision on net neutrality, as also reviewing the regulation on discriminatory pricing in this light, would be the right way forward," Rajan Mathews, director general at the Cellular Operators Association of India, told ET.

The regulator's likely move of agreeing to the demands of the industry will be the first time in several months that both sides will be on the same page. Over the past year, telcos have locked horns with Trai over the issues of penalties on call drops and differential pricing of data tariffs.

Besides the piecemeal approach, COAI, which is the GSM industry association, and its counterpart for CDMA players, the Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India, as well as the Internet & Mobile Association of India and software body Nasscom also criticised the paper on free data, which sought views on establishing telecom service provider (TSP)-agnostic platforms aimed at connecting the unconnected, saying regulating such platforms was not within the purview of the Trai Act.

Trai "may find it a challenge in regulating such a platform under the provisions of the Trai Act," industry body Assocham also said in a statement Monday.

Trai had sought responses on three suggested models – a toll-free platform where browsing will be free; consumers paying upfront and being subsequently reimbursed, and applications that reward users with incentives such as data or voice usage recharges. It wanted to ensure mobile phone operators couldn't act as gatekeepers and hence proposed that the platforms be telco-agnostic, or those not involving carriers.

Others too criticised the paper on free data, saying even having a telco-agnostic platform couldn't ensure net neutrality. The Software Freedom Law Centre said that it did not make a difference if the platform used to provide free services was telco-agnostic or not as long as the principles of net neutrality were upheld.

"However, the free data models suggested in the paper will result in the bigger players controlling access. In such a scenario, instead of the TSP acting as a gatekeeper, various platforms offering free data will act as gatekeepers," it said in its submission.